On hand for the event was one of the drones: a sleek gray MQ-9 Predator B.

Thirty-nine feet in length and weighing just less than 5 tons, the unmanned aircraft system, or UAS, is a $10 million investment equipped with cameras capable of detecting a backpacker with a drug load from a point 19,000 feet in the sky and 8 miles away.

CBP officials credit the drones with helping interdict 39,000 pounds of narcotics and capture more than 7,000 illegal border crossers since their debut with the agency five years ago.

"I'm humbled by the power of this technology," Bersin said. "It's a powerful force multiplier."

Congressmen on hand

U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, said they lobbied hard to assure the equipment proving valuable in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was put to use on the Texas border.

"With this little baby here, I think that communities on both sides of the border will be able to sleep more comfortably," Ortiz said.

Cuellar said he envisioned four to five drones based in Texas, with as many as 24 patrolling the nation's northern and southern land and sea borders, even assisting Mexico and Latin American countries under the approval of their respective governments.

He said the nation's current Homeland Security budget calls for two drones for Texas, but it wasn't immediately clear when those new drones will actually start logging flight time.

The remote-controlled aircraft on display Wednesday was on loan from its docking site in Arizona, and the scheduled takeoff to wow media and dignitaries was canceled because of conflicts with Naval training exercises.

Firsthand accounts

David Gasho, head of operations for the drones at the CBP's drone base in Sierra Vista, Ariz., and the drone pilot, said the same machine can go back and forth along the border while being maneuvered from any of the UAS air bases.

He regaled reporters with tales of how the drone's radar can penetrate clouds, see a vehicle under a tarp or detect a breach in the border fence. A group of drug smugglers that used to take Border Patrol agents a whole day to track can now be rounded up in a matter of minutes, with a second group tracked within the hour.

One tank of fuel buys 20 flying hours, he said, and if needed, the thing can hover.